Don’t let the Faze Clan reveal fool you, The Peeps are still the underdogs. They emerged from Dreamhack Montreal 2019 with a Cinderella story that put them on the map. Fans have now gotten their first glimpse of what The Peeps can do in the Rocket League Championship Series with a big organization behind them. This season taught fans a lot about them as a team and will set the tone for expectations going forward. What are their biggest strengths, their biggest weaknesses, and how far will they take Faze next season?
Gyro, AYYJAYY, Allushin, and Moopy reaffirmed their ability to play aggressively while remaining defensively responsible. They also displayed their ability to maintain pace down the stretch, with or without a lead. It seems like AYYJAYY especially is all over the field at all times, making saves and scoring points. Faze always finds a way to transition the ball to the opposing half and apply pressure. They did begin to struggle converting this into points as the tournament went on…
When it comes to weaknesses, a lot of pitfalls in their game can be chalked up to inexperience. In their second game against Spacestation, they made a questionable call to go 2v2 down the stretch that ended up costing them the game. AYYJAYY is probably their biggest offensive threat and placing him out of position to utilize his strengths did them no favors. This was a good attempt at versatility though since they’ll need to find new ways of attacking and working outside their comfort zone. Teams they’ve beaten before, like G2, seemed to completely shut down any offensive momentum Faze could muster, and even scored more and more easily on their defense as the series went on.
So what does this mean for Faze next season? They got sent home early in round 1 after going completely scoreless in the final two games. Even AYYJAYY couldn’t come up with a goal for them, missing what should have been an easy conversion in series 2. Expectations will probably fall following such an exit, but The Peeps play their best Rocket League as the underdogs. If they want to continue this pattern on the RCLS stage though, they have to build their offense and rely less heavily on AYYJAYY and Gyro. Their ability to swarm the field and adapt to the pace of the game lends itself well to their defense, but seems to fatigue them as the games go on. Even if they find a way to focus that energy, they need more experience and versatility to place much higher next season.
